6/16/2025
The last time I was in any kind of good shape from a fitness point of view was when I was a road bike rider.
I only rode enough to call myself a rider for about 4 years. Oh, there was the time in 2019 – 20 when we were in Fort Collins for the summer for wrapping up IBS (Cru’s Institute of Biblical Studies) and then when the pandemic hit that I rode a bit and ran some. I was in a little better shape then too. But five years is a long time. And now I am officially 50 years old. Maybe I’m in my prime, but fitness doesn’t come like it used to.
Will is back for a few weeks and is interested in getting into cycling. He’s been running and will continue that. But he’s a good motivator for me! So he helped me get a part that was critical to getting started. It was a small, silly part that I have been putting off. No good excuse. Except that I guess I wanted an excuse. But that’s fixed and we went on a ride yesterday. evening. It was short. And I was tired. Not good. We have to start somewhere though, right? Right.
So I’ve officially started back to riding, so long as one little ride qualifies as starting.
Here’s some of what I like about riding (both real and theoretical) …
- It can be a time of quiet peace.
- Things move by slower.
- Thinking comes easy without a bunch of distractions, like the phone, computer, or all the other things constantly screaming for our attention.
- It ain’t running.
- Or even jogging.
- When I’m back at the car and am climbing off the bike, I’m always glad that I went to the trouble to go for a ride.
- Though it does require some gear, it’s really pretty simple. And I generally go pretty minimalist… a spare inner-tube, bike tool, pump, bill-fold, bottle of water, phone. And though my bike is a road bike, it only has one gear. ( Not that I won’t go back to a regular road bike eventually)
- I know that it’s good for me. It’s obviously good for my fitness. And it’s good for my mental clarity as well.
- There is an element of risk that I like as well. (Famous last words?)